


two short moments

by showmethebeefy



Category: Alien Series, Aliens (1986)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, It's a mix of the two, Lesbians in Space, Sad and Happy, if that tells you anything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-13 17:35:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11190006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/showmethebeefy/pseuds/showmethebeefy
Summary: something special blooms in the calm before the storm. we all know how this story ends.





	two short moments

**Author's Note:**

> rottenbrainstuff on tumblr requested I write ripley and vasquez flirting and relaxing for one short moment before the shit hits the fan. I took that request and ran with it. hope it's satisfactory.

As soon as she was able, Ripley stalked away from the briefing, gritting her jaw tightly, fists clenched so tight her nails bit into her palms. Fuck. Fucking…fuck. She had lost her cool. Yelled. But those goddamn marines… None of them knew what they were getting into. They didn’t know. They _laughed_.

A wall presented itself before Ripley, and she stopped and leaned her back against it, pressing her head back against it, letting the cool of the metal seep into her. Grounding her. Reminding her… This was real. She wasn’t trapped alone with that slick black _monster_ , every step leading toward her certain death. She wasn’t even going to have to be near one, see one, not anything. She flexed her fingers out of their white-knuckle fists and pressed her palms against the wall as well. Breathe, she told herself. In… Out… In… Out… In…

“Ey, Snow White!”

Footsteps. And a familiar voice. Private Vasquez, if memory served. Vasquez who had made a boast about her prowess, treating this sort of thing like it would be a breeze. Ripley didn’t turn her head, didn’t acknowledge Vasquez. She just let out a sigh.

“Ripley!”

Closer, now. Ripley waited for a moment longer, then acquiesced to the fact she would have to talk to Vasquez. She opened her eyes, turned away from the wall, to face Vasquez.

She was quite the handsome woman, as Ripley had noticed previously but could not help to note now. Shorter than Ripley, naturally. Quite a lot shorter. Ripley was very tall, and had long ago gotten used to towering.

“Look, Vasquez,” Ripley started, “I don’t have time for you to mock – ” But Vasquez cut in, running over the end of her sentence with her own train of words.

“Ripley, I just wanted to properly introduce myself,” Vasquez said. “Jenette Vasquez, Private First Class.” She smiled, a sort of sly smile that only touched half her mouth. “We don’t have enough women out here with us. And I feel like we got off on the wrong foot.” She extended a hand, which looked weathered from hard military training, and very strong.

“Oh.” The sound came out of Ripley, more of a sigh of discarded anger than an actual word. “Well, okay, then. I’m Ellen Ripley, though you probably already gathered that.” She extended her own hand, which, although not the same kind of strong as Vasquez’s hand, was just as strong. A firm handshake was had.

After a moment, Ripley leaned back against the wall and slid down it to a seated position. Without needing prompting, Vasquez followed her down, plopping right next to her.

“So, not that I _mind_ ,” Ripley said, “But it is quite a sausage fest around here. So much for equal rights for women, eh?” She shot Vasquez a dry look and a grin to boot. Vasquez barked out a laugh and nodded.

“Y’know, I get along fine, more than fine, even, with the guys,” Vasquez replied, “but there is a serious deficiency of good strong women on our team. There’s a few of us, but it’s a serious deficiency.” She paused for a moment before adding, “Thank god, I’ve got you here now.”

“Yeah, you do have me,” Ripley said, nodding. “I’m no stranger to a crew full of men either. On my old ship, the _Nostromo_ …” She trailed off for a second, and then continued. “On the _Nostromo_ , it was five men – well, four men and a male android disguised as a human – and just me and one other female officer. So I can sympathize.”

“You are going to have to tell me all about the _Nostromo_ sometime, Ripley.” Vasquez bumped her shoulder against Ripley’s upper arm. “I’m sure you all got up to a lot of…shenanigans…in there.” It was Ripley’s turn to laugh at that.

“If you want to know about the _Nostromo_ you should check the file they have on disc,” Ripley said with a wry twist to her mouth. “It has all you need to know. And it has Lieutenant Gorman’s recommendation, so you know it’s quite something.” Vasquez actually leaned against Ripley’s side as she wheezed with laughter about that. But after a minute, Vasquez paused and got serious.

“But I do want to hear it from you, Ripley,” she said earnestly. “Any tales you have to tell. I would love to hear them.” Ripley felt warm in her chest. For some reason, Vasquez, her words… Their sincerity caused a little flame to bloom within her chest.

Then, suddenly, came Sergeant Apone’s voice, echoing throughout the ship, shouting for Vasquez. Vasquez stood upright, followed a second after by Ripley. Vasquez started to walk toward the vague direction of Apone’s booming voice, but then paused, and turned around to look back at Ripley.

“When this is all over,” she said, that same sly smile on her face, “we should go get drinks. Just the two of us.”

“Sure,” Ripley said, after a moment. “I’ll take you up on that.”

The sly smile on Vasquez’s face widened to a full-mouthed grin. Then she turned and jogged toward Apone, leaving Ripley standing there.

“Well, that wasn’t exactly what I was expecting,” she said to herself after a moment. But it was nice, though, she thought. Really nice. And Vasquez had made her laugh, had made her forget for a moment, what her life was like, where they were, why they were here. That was new. Ripley stood there for a moment longer, before going off to search for something to do. If she was gonna be here, she was gonna make herself useful.

It wasn’t until what felt like an eternity of everything being worse than Ripley had expected, which was really saying something, because she had had some really low expectations, that Ripley got another short moment alone with Vasquez. The few of them who were left and were able to help were all helping to set up the four sentry turrets at strategic locations. Hicks and Hudson were making sure one was positioned correctly, when Vasquez walked over to Ripley.

“Things aren’t looking so good for us,” Vasquez said, hands shoved in her pockets. “I don’t know if we’re gonna be able to get that drink together after all, eh, Snow White?”

“I know things look bleak,” Ripley reasoned, “but if we give up hope, we won’t be able to keep fighting back. We won’t be able to survive.” She placed a hand on Vasquez’s back in an attempt to instill some sense of comfort or hope, something she could still barely find in herself, if at all.

“So what are you saying?” asked Vasquez, looking sideways at Ripley.

“I’m saying that you should think of us getting drinks after all this,” Ripley replied. “Just the two of us, once we get home. We’ll get drinks. It _will_ happen. Let that be your hope, Vasquez.” She paused. “Jenette.” As she told Vasquez to make it her hope, she made it part of her own, as well. She looked over at Vasquez, who was giving her an interesting look.

“You sure do say the most interesting things… Ellen,” she said. Then, between one breath and the next, she was there, so close to Ripley, and she gave her a kiss. A short kiss, and a sweet one, but undoubtedly a kiss. Ripley hadn’t been kissed in… well, over 58 years, actually. _Fuck_.

“I’ve got to get back to work,” Vasquez said, stepping away from Ripley. “I’m sure they’re fucking everything up without my help.” Vasquez shook her head, amused, and then gave Ripley a fierce smile and turned and walked away.

Leaving Ripley standing there, again.

Now, the little flame in her heart had become a bonfire.

What makes this truly sad is, that fire can’t fight back very well against a storm, especially one as deadly as the one the few survivors of the _Sulaco_ were facing. More often than not, the fire loses. I’m sure you know how this tale ends.

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me at matty-mara.tumblr.com if you want to send me anon hate for emotionally wounding you or if you want to send me requests for stuff I could maybe write for anything in the alien-verse really (except alien vs predator I have not seen those lmao) hit me up!


End file.
